Forty-eight children aged four and six years listened to stories in which it would be appropriate for the protagonist to feel a negative emotion. Results indicated that six-year-olds were more accurate than four-year-olds in judging that real and apparent emotion would not coincide when the protagonist hid feelings. (RJC)

Describes two experiments that examined children's understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotion. Discusses the findings in relation to research concerning children's concept of mind, their grasp of the appearance-reality distinction; their ability to produce complex, embedded justifications; and their ideas about emotion.…